


Clove

by NarcissusPhinea



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, F/M, I don't know why I wrote this, Unbeta'ed, lapslock, playing fast and loose with canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 15:33:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17025324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NarcissusPhinea/pseuds/NarcissusPhinea
Summary: Who is Clove?





	Clove

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know, but I probably changed her.

there were a few rules everyone knew. there, in the district of bloodlust, most vocal supporters of hunger games save the capital itself, children grew up only hoping they'd be the lucky ones.

  
clove was one of those kids. and clove knew those rules.

  
• ally yourself with the other career tributes.  
• do not trust them if they go to bed especially happy towards you.  
• do not trust them if they go to bed especially angry towards you.

  
this was a district of children who were taught that killing was the best thing you could do for your family and home. it wasn't known for breeding those very good at regulating their emotions. one might expect emotionally sturdy and studious people solemnly promising to win, but it was more like people who didn't realize they could die, arrogant about their chances and anxious to spill blood over any slight.

  
clove wasn't rash, and she could pretend with the rest of them. that was the only reason she didn't feel she would die, because cato and the other careers were too stupid to live and the other districts were too weak and unsuited to the games.

  
clove and cato were the pair everyone were talking about (later it would be katniss and peeta, but not yet). the power couple who would win for sure, because even after all those years nobody wanted to say just yet that only one could win.

  
clove and cato. the other two tried to kill them, fancying themselves awfully clever for staging this coup de tat, nevermind that this had played out almost exactly the same for a great number of games. but clove and cato were equally determined to win. they killed the traitors, stringing it out and listing their sins before laughing at the crying, sniffling, begging sounds that came out before exacting final revenge and revelling in the color red.

  
most people expected clove and cato to be the last two standing, fighting to one in a glorious haze of passion and fury. some romantics believed maybe clove would sacrifice herself for her true love cato.

  
the poor idiots watching from the districts probably expected clove to do what she did. but that was okay, she only needed her district and the capitol to be too stupid to predict her.

  
because there was a fourth rule that she knew.

  
simply put, kill them long before you stop being useful to them, and kill them before they stop being useful to you.

  
one could expect execution to chase them if one made a mistake and somehow disadvantaged their allies in the career group. clove would put herself ahead before that time came. oh, no doubt cato planned to kill her in all his disgusting, detailed fantasies, but not yet.

  
clove and cato fucked, giving a little show to all the capital pigs. ("i love you, clove," he lied, which she thought probably made the watchers happy). sometimes it got them their silver prizes, sometimes it didn't. and when he'd just drifted off to sleep, body glistening appetizingly for their viewers, she put a knife through his throat and began to doze off herself.

  
the following day there were only a few people left. the two from twelve surprised her, as well as the little girl from eleven. the man from eleven she thought would be hardest to kill.

  
then that announcement was made: two people could live if they were from the same district. there was no part of clove that regretted what she'd done, but the change would undoubtedly make the two pairs scrabble for survival a little bit harder. and she herself was beginning to feel a little weak from the difficult conditions in the arena.

  
she didn't need any added incentive to go to the cornucopia for medicine. they were all nearing the end, and she was ready to go home. clove could set up camp and kill them as they came.

  
thresh, the strong one from eleven, got there just a little bit after her. clove thought he'd be difficult. she scratched the grips of her knives just once, watching thresh approach. ambushes were smarter, but here, smarter didn't always have a place. it could be a find-the-weakness-in-the-arena wait or it could be an unthoughtful fight-for-your-life-in-daylight brawl. this time, it was the latter.

  
clove started darting around, brandishing her blades. thresh was slow, but like an ox, he was very strong. if she let him get his hands on her, it would be over.

  
"fuck," she grunted as he landed a punch she wasn't fast enough to avoid. but she'd scraped him up too, slashes on his arm. if clove got a good one, she could run away and let him bleed out. it was less dominating than careers preferred, but against thresh, it might be the best she could do.

  
it happened in slow motion: she reached out with a knife again, looking to slash something deep. he tried to grab her arm, ended up getting a handful of sharp metal, but he didn't let go. he yanked her closer and got one good hand around her neck--

  
she didn't really expect to die in the games. she knew she could, but she thought she was smarter than them, really. it was a dream of her family to have raised a victor.

  
but it seemed she'd meet cato again soon. 

**Author's Note:**

> (In this universe, Katniss and Peeta still win, but if it had been Rue and Thresh, I imagine he would have killed himself and Rue would've been the Victor).


End file.
